Sophomore guard Avery Felts scored a career-high 16 points and dished out a career-best seven assists to help lead the Arkansas State men’s basketball team to an 86-55 victory over Harding in its season opener Monday night at First National Bank Arena.
Felts was one of three A-State players scoring in double figures, joined by senior Markise Davis and sophomore Julian Lual with 14 points each. The Red Wolves posted a .563 shooting percentage as they began their season with a victory for the second straight year, marking the first time since 2004-05 and 2005-06 they won back-to-back season openers.
A-State also outrebounded Harding 40-30 and finished with 29 assists that were only one shy of the arena record. Defensively, the Red Wolves limited the Bison to a .375 mark from the field, tallied 15 steals and scored 19 points off turnovers.
The Red Wolves fell behind by a 24-14 score 12 minutes into the contest, but closed the first half on a 26-4 run and outscored the Bison 46-27 in the second half. Twelve different A-State players saw time on the court, including 10 who registered at least 10 minutes of action.
Leading 40-28 at the break, Arkansas State scored 36 of the first 43 second-half points as its lead swelled to 76-35 with 7:38 left in the game. The Red Wolves matched their largest lead of 41 points a few minutes later before going on to the 31-point victory.
In addition to his 14 points, Davis tallied a career-high four steals while adding five rebounds and two assists. Forward Omar El-Shiekh was responsible for a team-high eight rebounds to go along with nine points and three steals.
Arkansas State returns to action Saturday, Nov. 12, with a 5:00 p.m. game at LSU. The contest will appear on SEC Network+
